Trump renounces two-state solution, equivocates on anti-Semitism

This says all you need to know. In his first press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu during the Israeli prime minister's visit to the White House Feb. 15, President Trump explicitly said he is not committed to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “I’m looking at two-state and one-state, and I like the one that both parties like,” Trump said, eliciting open chuckles from Netanyahu. "I can live with either one." Referring to Netanyahu by his nickname, he added: "I thought for a while that the two-state looked like it may be the easier of the two, but honestly if Bibi, if Israel and the Palestinians are happy, I'm happy with the one they like the best." As Ma'an News notes, this is a radical departure from the long-held US position, and it comes a day after similar comments from a White House official. The official was unnamed, but the comment that the White house is "not going to dictate what the terms of peace will be" was widely reported—e.g. by JTA and The Hill.

Trump did tell Netanyahu: "As far as settlements, I'd like to see you to hold back on settlements for a little bit." But this was posed as a temporary move pending a deal—which Trump of course said "might be a bigger and better deal than people in this room might understand."

Of course this follows similar noises from Israeli officialdom about how "the era of the two-state solution has ended." The "bigger and better deal" might be code for the annexationist agenda of the Netanyahu government.

We are not attached to a two-state solution. Those who advocate a single, secular, democratic state in historic Palestine also reject the two-state solution. But activist scholar Sarah Schulman draws the critical distinction between a future single state "where everyone has equal citizenship rights regardless of race or religion," and the single state sought by Israel's annexationists—"a Jewish supremacy system where Palestinian people are subordinated."

And here's the best part. All too tellingly, when Trump was questioned by and Israeli reporter at the press conference about the concerns of Jewish constituents about racists, xenophobes and anti-Semites in his administration, Trump first responded (of course) by bragging in unseemly manner about "the victory that we had... 306 Electoral College votes, we were not supposed to crack 220, you know that, right?" Et cetera.

When he finally got around to, um, answering the question, it was in completley equivocal terms—starting out with kneejerk tough-on-crime boast and only actually mentioning racism as an item on a list of ill-defined "bad things"—and not mentioning anti-Semitism at all: "I will say that we are going to have peace in this country. We are going to stop crime in this country. We are going to do everything within our power to stop long simmering racism and every other thing that's going on. There's a lot of bad things that have been taking place over a long period of time." (See transcript.)

Basically, a condescending, lukewarm and evasive psuedo-answer.

So we must ask again: How much overt Nazism will conservative Jews and Zionists be able to stomach in exchange for an aggressively pro-Israel position?

Jake Turx, an Orthodox reporter for the Brooklyn-based Jewish magazine Ami questioned Trump at yesterday's combative press conferemce about the wave of anti-Semitic attacks. He was cut off with a dismissive "Quiet, quiet, quiet," and told to "sit down." Trump called the question "very insulting," and cited his support from Benjamin Netanyahu as supporting evidence. "I am the least anti-Semitic person you have ever seen in your entire life," he boasted. "I am the least racist person."

When another reporter asked a follow-up question about anti-Semitic propaganda wielded by his supporters, Trump went on to raise a "false flag" theory: "Some of the signs you'll see are not put up by the people that love...Donald Trump. They're put up by the other side, and you think it's like playing it straight? No. But you have some of those signs, and some of that anger is caused by the other side. They'll do signs and they'll do drawings that are inappropriate. It won't be my people. It will be the people on the other side to anger people like you."

After equivocating on the question three times when called out on it, he finally issues some rote rhetoric denouncing it, the NY Times reports. Too little too late, Pendejo. It only took the nationwide wave of anti-Semitic threats actually escalating to an attack on a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis, with dozens of headstones overturned. This as the bomb threats on Jewish community centers continue. (Jezebel)

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, part of a group of state attorneys general who met with Trump at the White House, told BuzzFeed News Trump made confounding claims comments about the bomb threats during their sit down.

He just said, ‘Sometimes it's the reverse, to make people, or to make others, look bad,’” Shapiro, a Democrat, said, repeating Trump’s alleged response to questions during the meeting about the large number of bomb threats against Jewish community centers in recent months.

"It didn't make a whole lot of sense to me," Shapiro said.

Shapiro claimed Trump used the word reverse "two or three times," adding that Trump also called the threats "reprehensible" toward the beginning of his remarks.

The White House disputed Shapiro’s description of Trump's comments.

"This is not what he said or meant," a White House spokesperson told the Daily News in an email. "He means (he) was referring to protesters."

Steven Goldstein, executive director of the Anne Frank Center, said if Shapiro’s account is accurate, "President Trump has gone over the anti-Semitic deep end."

Yeah, we'd say so. And the "referring to protesters" line is completely non-sensical. What protesters? If he meant anti-Trump protesters, that's still a "flase flag" theory. And while we thought Trump was getting this line from Alex Jones, it may have actually been David Duke...

President Trump, do you think it might be the Jews themselves making these calls to get sympathy to push their ethnic agenda? @POTUShttps://t.co/AgeeTKzzLG

The State Department's office to monitor and combat anti-Semitism will be unstaffed as of July 1. A source told JTA that its remaining two staffers, each working half-time or less, would be reassigned as of that date. The Trump administration, which has yet to name an envoy to head the office, would not comment on the staffing change. At full staffing, the office employs a full-time envoy and the equivalent of three full-time staffers. (JTA)